Ascent Trip Report

This was a rare occasion of visiting a U.S. county high point without using a car during the entire trip away from home.

I had visited Gold Mountain, CoHP of Kitsap County, WA, in 2000. However, I had no good trip report or GPS and I did not visit the highest mossy knoll, since I assumed that the actual highest point was one of the several radio tower areas adorning the summit. After finding out from others that the benchmark and likely HP was not at a radio area, I realized I had to revisit the area. To make it more interesting, I thought I would visit it from my Seattle-area home entirely by bicycle and public transportation.

I left home at 9 AM and rode my mountain bike to a nearby bus station, put my bike on a bike bus rack, and took the bus to downtown Seattle. A short urban bike ride took me to the Bremerton Ferry terminal, where I rode the 10:15 – 11:15 AM ferry across Puget Sound. Then I biked about 17 miles west to Gold Mountain, following Belfair Valley Road to a right on Minard Road, which basically winds all the way to the summit—the bike is nice to have past the locked gate, but the road was a bit muddy and steep. There was logging activity going on, and I passed a road grader going the other way. No issues with trespassing—the friendly driver waved at me. I also saw some hunters along the road.

I arrived at the summit a bit before 2 PM and revisited all the radio tower areas, plus the actual HP—the trip reports of Bob Bolton, Adam Helman, and Edward Earl at CoHP.org are all excellent for finding the highest knoll with the benchmark, stumps, and crossbar.

I biked the 17 mostly downhill miles back to Bremerton, rushed to catch the 4:15-5:15 PM ferry back to Seattle, then got over to the bus stop in Pioneer Square, and I was home by 6:30 PM.

Summary Total Data

Elevation Gain:

1751 ft / 533 m

Distance:

34 mi / 54.7 km

Trailhead:

Bremerton Ferry Dock 10 ft / 3 m

Quality:

4 (on a subjective 1-10 scale)

Route Conditions:

Road Hike

Gear Used:

Bicycle

Weather:

Pleasant, Calm, Clear

Ascent Statistics

Time Up:

2 Hours 40 Minutes

Descent Statistics

Time Down:

1 Hours 40 Minutes

GPS Data for Ascent/Trip

GPS Waypoints - Hover or click to see name and lat/longPeaks: climbed and unclimbed by Greg SlaydenClick Here for a Full Screen MapNote: GPS Tracks may not be accurate, and may not show the best route. Do not follow this route blindly. Conditions change frequently. Use of a GPS unit in the outdoors, even with a pre-loaded track, is no substitute for experience and good judgment. Peakbagger.com accepts NO responsibility or liability from use of this data.